Stem cell therapies provided at Gulf Coast Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Center uses a patient’s own stem cells to promote healing and tissue regeneration. Stem cells are collected from a patient’s fat tissue and minimally processed before being injected back into the patient at the treatment site. Because a stem cell is a special type of cell that can turn into any other type of cell and multiply, stem cell therapy can be used to regrow many different tissues — including skin, collagen, and cartilage — throughout the body. While there has been controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells, which come from embryonic tissue, the adult stem cells used in our therapies come from the patient’s own body— specifically from fat tissue. Fat contains large numbers of stem cells, and today the tools exist to separate stem cells from fat to be used for therapeutic treatment. The fat removal procedure takes only about 20 minutes and is done under local anesthetic at our office. Most patients experience little downtime or activity restriction following the procedure. We meet all FDA guidelines for the treatment and manipulation of a patient’s own tissues by giving same-day treatment with the patient’s own cells, which are minimally processed and inserted during the same procedure.